


What We Are

by DarkNymfa



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Christmas Truce 2020, Friendship, Gift Fic, Holiday truce 2020, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Roleswap, Trans Danny Fenton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28285647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa
Summary: Vlad Masters, young half-ghost, finally meets his uncle. And discovers that the man is a half-ghost, just like him.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Tucker Foley/Sam Manson, Jack Fenton & Maddie Fenton & Vlad Masters, Tucker Foley/Sam Manson
Comments: 17
Kudos: 102





	What We Are

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know whether we're going with Holiday Truce or Christmas Truce this year lmao so I doubled up on the tags. Either way, it's for dandan-phantom-blog on Tumblr, and iiiiit kinda got away from me. Whoops. For the prompt "Danny and Vlad Role Swap", with a touch of "Danny, Tucker, and Sam are all trans and they kiss sometimes" (except I didn't find a way to organically mention that Sam and Tucker are also trans in the context of this fic so hhhh).
> 
> Title from String Theory by Les Friction.

“Looks pretty clear from up here,” Vlad reported, hovering high above his friends. His cape flapped as the wind tugged at its edges, the red flashing repeatedly.

“The scanner isn’t picking up any ghosts besides you, either,” Maddie reported from below, staring at the silver invention in her hands. “But the range isn’t great.”

“We should look into that some more,” Jack agreed from next to her, frowning up at Vlad. “You can’t pick up any invisible ghosts either, Vladdie?”

He sighed gustily, peering around a little more. “No, Jack. I can only sense the cores from pretty close by, and I can only see them if I’m really trying.” Rolling his eyes, Vlad started lowering himself closer to the ground. “If I don’t know there are any ghosts present, chances are I won’t see through their invisibility either.”

“That seems like a bit of a flaw,” Jack commented cheerily. “Too bad you didn’t just get a ghost-scanning ability with the other powers.”

“For all we know it would’ve been as strong as this tracker of ours,” Maddie pointed out, turning to face them. “At least this mechanical tracker can be upgraded.”

“And my abilities aren’t exactly the most reliable, either.” Vlad cocked an eyebrow at Jack. “I got the basics down, but ghost sensing seems a little more advanced.”

Maddie hummed thoughtfully, continuing on in the direction they had been heading. “Well, who knows. A ghost tracking sense could’ve been an expansion of your innate ability to sense ghost cores. That seems pretty basic to me.”

“ _And_ ,” Jack jumped in, “If you could sense ghosts yourself, we could’ve spent more time working on weapons for me and Maddie!”

“I thought your ecto-guns were fine?” Vlad frowned at the guns either of his friends held. He’d been assured that they were both well-armed, perfectly safe if they ran into a ghost, but if that wasn’t the case…

“They work just as well as your ecto-ray,” Maddie assured him, not slowing down or looking up from the scanner. “But it could be useful to have more variation in weaponry besides the ray gun and the Thermos.”

“Ah.” Well, that was fair enough, Vlad supposed. More ways for his friends to defend themselves couldn’t hurt. “Fair enough. We can always focus on more weaponry next. The scanner is fine as long as we do regular patrols.”

The device in question pinged, and three pairs of eyes zoned in on it instantly.

“Looks like there’s a ghost nearby, boys.” Maddie grinned, turning towards the right. “This way!”

“Remember to mute it,” Vlad hissed, diving lower until he was just over his friends. “Let’s try stealth for once.”

Maddie snorted as she reached down to the mute switch. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s not _my_ stealthiness we have to worry about.”

“Sorry,” Jack whispered, making a face. “But it’s not like it’s always my fault!”

Vlad pressed a finger to his lips, and Jack snapped his mouth shut immediately. Then mimed zipping them up for good measure.

The three of them snuck closer in complete silence, gathering on the corner of a building. According to the scanner, the ghost was in the small park beyond it.

Forcing himself invisible, Vlad leaned out. And saw…

“Nothing,” he reported quietly, dropping his invisibility. Maintaining it for long was too draining. “I don’t see it anywhere.”

Below him, both Jack and Maddie peered around the corner as well.

“Just two people kissing,” Jack agreed.

“And neither of them look like ghosts.” Maddie glanced down at the scanner again. “The ghost should be here though, it’s still showing up on the scanner.”

Vlad cast out his senses. “Yes, there is definitely an increase in ectoplasm. Must be invisible.”

Which was just such a _joy_. He could see invisible ghosts if he really tried, sure, but it was such a strain. His eyes would inevitably start hurting later from all this peering around.

Finally, though, his eye caught on a glimmer on movement. Immediately zeroing in on it, Vlad immediately recognized it as a ghost.

There was no time for a good look, however, as it was clearly preparing to move. And based on the way it was invisibly staring at the kissing couple, there was no doubt in Vlad’s mind as to what it was about to do.

He pushed off from the building, rushing forward to intercept the ghost. The moment he got his hands wrapped around the ghost’s upper arms he turned them both intangible as well, shoving the attacking ghost through a different building and onto the ground behind it.

His target, a male humanoid ghost, seemed briefly startled, dropping his invisibility as Vlad pinned him to the floor of the alley.

It didn’t last long, however, as the ghost narrowed his bright green eyes and promptly kicked Vlad off. The ghost kept moving up, white boots leaving the ground instantly, even as he brushed dust out of his white hair.

Vlad blinked at him, feeling oddly caught off-guard by the fact that the ghost had just kicked him off, rather than flipping them around so Vlad was the one pinned to the ground.

Apparently his silence lasted too long, because green eyes zeroed in on him. The ghost’s aura flared violently, angrily.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he hissed at Vlad, green ectoplasm sparking around his hands. “We could’ve been spotted, you absolute moron!”

Vlad, belatedly realizing he shouldn’t be lying on the floor with a potentially dangerous ghost right there, pushed himself up into a seated position. “We were both invisible, it was fine.”

“It was _not_ fine!” the ghost snapped back, even as footsteps echoed through the alley. “See?”

Jack and Maddie appeared in the opening of the alley, and Vlad rolled his eyes, secretly relieved for the backup. “They’re just my friends, they already knew we were there.”

“Well.” The ghost drew himself up, muscles rolling underneath the tight black jumpsuit he wore. Bright green eyes moved over Jack and Maddie, clearly evaluating them—and the ecto-guns in their hands.

Instantly, Vlad scrambled up onto his feet, ready to shield his friends with his body if he had to.

“Good for you,” the ghost concluded, bitterly, eyes moving back to Vlad. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”

And before any of them could stop him, the ghost vanished into a puff of green smoke. Literally, he dissolved into a ecto-green cloud, which faded away almost instantly.

“Huh,” Vlad said despite himself, finding himself blinking stupidly once more. “I guess he wasn’t interested in fighting after all.”

Maddie hummed an agreement, pulling out the scanner with one hand, still holding her gun in the other. “Scanner says that he’s gone, too.”

Vlad lifted up further, peeking over the edge of the building. “And the couple he was watching is gone too.”

“Guess we have no clues left to track him down, even if we wanted to.” Jack sighed, running a hand through his hair. “That sucks. Hopefully he won’t be up to anything too bad.”

“Let’s hope so,” Maddie agreed, shaking her head. She clicked the safety back on, stowing her gun into its holster. “Maybe we’ll run into him again while we finish up patrol.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Vlad floated back to his friends. “Still, something about him was weird.”

“He’s a ghost,” Jack pointed out with a shrug. “They’re always a little weird.”

And while that was true, something about it just kept niggling at Vlad.

* * *

They finished their patrol before long, returning to Vlad’s home once more. Somehow it had become their go-to place over the years, and after his accident… well, the little time they spent at their own houses, they were usually at Vlad’s.

He figured it was because his house was a quiet place, full of privacy, especially compared to Jack’s and Maddie’s. Between Maddie’s sister and Jack’s overbearing parents, well… Vlad’s own house, with just his own mother, was a breath of fresh air to the both of them.

Which was, he supposed, the reason why they were all so shocked to see a stranger standing in the living room, talking to Danielle.

The man, pale skinned but with mussy black hair, had his back turned to them, which certainly didn’t help with recognizing the guy. His t-shirt and jeans were rather nondescript too, not anywhere near recognizable enough to place the man.

And then he turned around and, well.

He looked exactly like Vlad’s mother, except with shorter hair.

“Um,” Vlad said, eyes darting between the two. Standing next to each other, both looking at Vlad, it was undeniable: they were almost exactly the same.

“Vlad,” his mother said, sighing exasperatedly. “I told you that my brother was coming over to visit. Did you forget?”

Well, now that was just embarrassing. Between all the ghost stuff he had, indeed, forgotten about his uncle.

Luckily the man in question did not seem offended at all, laughing brightly. “Honestly, Elle, you should’ve seen that one coming. You know what it’s like being that age, not caring a whit about family members that you don’t know.”

Still laughing, Vlad’s uncle stepped closer, eyes moving over Vlad and to Jack and Maddie. As he did so, his laughter faltered a little, but before Vlad could process that, the man offered a hand, smile once more back on his face.

“Danny Masters,” he said, as Vlad accepted his hand and shook it. “Danielle’s identical twin.”

“He picked his name to match mine because he thinks he’s hilarious,” Danielle explained, rolling her eyes.

Danny released Vlad’s hand, turning to shoot her a wicked grin. “That’s because I _am_ hilarious.”

“Don’t lie to my face, Danny,” Danielle countered, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Wouldn’t dare to, _sister dearest_.”

“How are you two identical twins, anyway?” Jack asked, loudly, breaking into their bickering.

As everyone turned to blink at Jack, Vlad could hear Danielle snort.

“Well,” Danny said, clapping his hands together to draw the attention back to him. “So sometimes when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much…”

He paused, then shrugged. “After Jazz our parents got tired of having so many girls so I decided to even it out a little.”

“Stop joking about it,” Danielle huffed, rolling her eyes again.

Danny snapped his fingers, cocking finger guns at her. “Never.”

“Wait. Did you actually name yourself after Danielle, then?” Vlad burst out, unable to hold it in anymore. Surely not? Names are a serious matter, right, especially for transgender people? He wouldn’t have—

“Oh, definitely,” Danny confirmed before Vlad could finish that thought. “I mean, we’re twins. It was perfect.”

“It was—and _is—_ ridiculous, Danny.” Danielle shot him a withering look, but even Vlad could see the fondness badly hidden in it. “I still think you should’ve gone after Jazz instead.”

“There are no good male names that resemble Jasmine and you know it.” Danny stuck out his tongue towards Danielle, and Vlad was suddenly overcome with the realization that his uncle was basically a child.

And then Danielle blew a raspberry back and Vlad amended that thought with the realization that his uncle _and his mother_ were both children.

Unbelievable.

It took another solid thirty minutes of chattering about everything and nothing before Vlad (and Jack and Maddie) managed to break away to Vlad’s room.

The moment he closed the door behind them, Maddie whirled around, a frown on her face. “Did anyone else notice that Vlad’s uncle kept throwing us weird looks?”

“Not really,” Jack admitted with a loose shrug. “Vladdie?”

“Yes, actually.” He thought back of the way Danny’s smile had faltered when he had first looked at Jack and Maddie. “He’d been smiling, laughing, but when he saw you two it fell. I thought that that was odd.”

Maddie hummed, thoughtfully. “How strange…”

“He could’ve just been afraid of our reactions,” Jack pointed out, quirking an eyebrow. “Since he looks so similar to Vlad’s mom, and because he’s trans.”

“Or maybe he wanted to make sure he made a good impression,” Vlad tacked on. “From what I remember of Danielle telling me about him before, Danny is a bit of a family-man.”

“Maybe it’s because Vlad could’ve been Danny’s own son.” Jack shrugged at their incredulous looks. “What, it’s true, isn’t it? If Danny and Danielle are identical twins, then Danny could’ve had a son just like Vlad, no?”

Vlad blinked at that. “I… suppose?”

“Hm. I don’t know…” Maddie sighed, then shook her head. “I just— He seems so familiar, I could swear I’ve seen him before. But I can’t for the life of me remember where or when.”

“Well, no point in fretting about it.” Vlad stretched, his spine clicking loudly. “It probably wasn’t anything important, anyway.”

“Probably,” Maddie agreed, before pausing, her eye caught on the clock. “Oh wow, is it that late already? I had better go home before my parents get worried.”

Jack turned to look as well, before making a face. “Yeah, me too. Man, they really kept us occupied for a while, huh?”

“We took our time with the patrol as well,” Vlad pointed out. “But yeah, wouldn’t want you, either of you, to miss dinner.”

They all walked back downstairs, where they paused at the door.

“And Vlad? If I remember, I’ll text you, okay?” Maddie said. “Both of you.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Vlad pushed, but she flapped a dismissive hand.

“It’s fine, I won’t stop thinking about it anyway. You know me, don’t you?” She laughed, stepping outside. “See you tomorrow!”

“I’ll get going too. See ya tomorrow, Vlad!” Jack shot him a brilliant grin and then, too, walked out the door.

Vlad waited for another moment, watching them leave, then quickly escaped back to his room before his mom spotted him. He had no desire to get trapped in another conversation with her and Uncle Danny. He’d had his fill of socializing for the day, thank you very much.

* * *

When Vlad came out of his room in the morning, it was to the sound of voices, only slightly muffled by the walls between them. It took him a moment to process, before he realized: his mother and uncle. Right, of course. They had obviously gotten up earlier than him, and were in the kitchen, talking.

Satisfied with this conclusion, Vlad made his way down the stairs to join them.

Until he heard his mother shout, “Stop being a fucking moron, Danny!”

He paused, hesitating, halfway down the stairs. Vlad didn’t think he had ever heard his mother swear before.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” he heard Danny snap back and, well. Sue him for getting curious.

Using the cover of the stairs—and the fact that the adults were clearly occupied—Vlad shifted into his ghost form, feeling his core surge up with renewed energy after a good night’s rest. Certain that he had plenty of energy for the moment, even without breakfast, Vlad turned himself invisible.

He pushed off from the stairs, floating towards the kitchen. Peeking in, he could see his mother and uncle Danny sitting at opposite sides of the kitchen table. Not their expression, however, since Danielle had her back turned to him and was, in turn, blocking most of Vlad’s view of Danny.

Silently cursing the small kitchen, Vlad shifted slightly in the doorway, but couldn’t cram himself into the kitchen and still keep an eye on both of them at the same time. Not unless he made himself intangible, but that would drain his energy too fast to risk.

Body language would have to do.

“I think I _do_ ,” Danielle bit at Danny, her shoulders visibly tight even with her clothes covering them. “Would it really kill you to _talk_ to Sam and Tucker?”

“Clearly you _don’t_ know, if you’re asking that!” Vlad kind of regretted not being able to see uncle Danny, now, because he sounded _pissed_.

Danielle huffed, shaking her head. “Just stop being an idiot and make up with them. Or, hell, just talking would be a good start. I’m serious, Danny.”

“And so am I!” Danny flung out a hand, gesturing wildly. “You know what they did! What happened to me!”

“You really think they don’t feel guilty as shit over that?” Danielle countered, also flailing her hands. “They love you, Danny. They don’t care about what happened with the accident at all!”

Well. This was becoming awkward. And it didn’t look like it would escalate into a proper fight at all, like he’d been afraid of, so… Time to make a hasty escape!

Before he could, though, Danny slammed his hands down on the table. Vlad found his eyes drawn back to his uncle instantly.

“Why _wouldn’t_ they care?” Danny snapped at Danielle, his eyes glowing a bright vivid green. “I’m a monster!”

Vlad… froze. He could feel his mind grinding to a halt, even as the green left again from his uncle’s eyes, returning them to the cool blue they had been before.

How could that be? Was his uncle really part ghost like him?

And Danny considered himself a monster for it. What did that make Vlad, then?

He shook the thoughts off, watching as Danny slumped down on the table, his anger having apparently left him after the outburst. Danielle leaned in closer, patting his shoulder, comforting him.

Biting his lip, Vlad floated out of the kitchen again. He could ponder about this moment, about the ramifications, somewhere else. Better to give them a little privacy. He’d taken enough of it already.

* * *

After sneaking out of the house—an act made easy thanks to his ghost powers—Vlad texted Jack and Maddie to meet him in the park. Figuring it would take them longer than him to get there, Vlad made a stop on the way to grab himself some breakfast.

So by the time he’d made it there, both of his friends were already present, waiting impatiently.

“What happened?” Maddie asked as soon as he was within earshot. “You texted us to meet up early, so it must be important, right?”

“Definitely,” Vlad confirmed through the bite of donut in his mouth. He held up a finger for her to wait, then quickly chewed and swallowed the last bite away. “My uncle Danny has ghost powers too.”

Maddie frowned immediately. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent.” He glanced around to make sure no one was watching them, then shifted back into his human form, landing with a thud. “He was having a bit of a discussion with my mom this morning, and I saw his eyes glow bright green when he got angry. But it faded away pretty quickly, so it wasn’t possession or anything.”

“Well, it makes sense,” Jack said with a shrug. “You guys are pretty closely related, so you must share some kind of genetic predisposition towards becoming part ghost. And a family-bound bout of ghost interests, maybe?”

Vlad snorted. “When you put it like that… yes, I guess so.”

“Did your mom not comment on it or anything?” Maddie’s frown deepened. “Or did she not see?”

“Oh, no, she definitely saw.” Vlad ran through the conversation again in his head. “I guess she must’ve already known? They mentioned an accident a few times, and that Sam and Tucker didn’t care about that it happened, but Danny _did_ , he considered himself a monster.”

Maddie sucked a breath through her teeth. “Yikes. That’s pretty harsh.”

“Sounds to me like they had an accident similar to ours,” Jack pointed out. “Danny turning into a half-ghost like you, Vlad, and his two friends present for it. And, hell, he might’ve been the ghost we ran into during our patrol yesterday. Maddie must’ve thought he looked familiar because we had seen him earlier.”

“That… sounds pretty reasonable, actually.” Vlad clicked his tongue. “But then what happened? Shouldn’t they have stuck together over it, rather than fall apart?”

“Anything could’ve happened,” Maddie pointed out, her frown smoothing out a little. “Who knows how long ago it happened, anyway. Maybe they just grew apart, maybe they didn’t. We have no way of knowing.”

“Besides asking?” Jack laughed at their incredulous looks. “Didn’t think so. But if Vlad’s mother and uncle were fighting over it, then clearly he must still care.”

Vlad hummed. “My mom seems pretty convinced they care for him still, even if he can’t see it. But I wonder… If he really was the ghost we saw yesterday, maybe Sam and Tucker were the couple he was spying on?”

“That sounds like a good reason to split apart, too,” Maddie agreed, brows creased. “You turning into a half-ghost, and your closest friends hooking up? I think I’d be miffed too. But to split apart entirely?”

“Well, it’s not really our business, is it?” Jack crossed his arms. “They’re all adults, they can figure it out themselves. They don’t need a bunch of teenagers to start meddling, do they?”

“No, I guess they don’t,” Maddie agreed. “But we _should_ talk to Danny, anyway.”

“And admit that I listened in on his private conversation with my mom?” Vlad bit his lip. He felt bad enough about it already, he didn’t exactly want to get a scolding on top of it. Or see Danny’s doubtlessly stronger ghost powers from up close.

Maddie snorted, like she knew exactly what he was thinking. “He _is_ another half-ghost, and one with probably tons more experience than you. He might have advice, or more knowledge. At the very least, he’ll be an older half-ghost to compare your stats to, no?”

“Maybe he’ll even be able to help with training!” Jack chipped in enthusiastically. “He must’ve done _something_ to develop his own powers, right?”

“Ugh, I guess.” Vlad grimaced. “Fine, we’ll go and ask him.”

“Well,” Maddie said out as she stretched. “First we’ll have to find him.”

* * *

“Got a ping on the ghost scanner!” Jack reported, pointing slightly to the right. “That way!”

 _Finally_. When they had set out to talk to Uncle Danny, Vlad hadn’t thought it would be such a chore just to find him.

“And I see him, too!” Maddie added on, her head angled back. Vlad followed her gaze and saw Danny as well. Or, well. The ghost they were fairly sure was Danny.

The white-haired specter was high in the sky, out of the eyesight of casual onlookers, and actively flying about. Vlad wondered if he was looking for Sam and Tucker, after he’d lost them yesterday.

“I’ll go bring him down.” Vlad tugged on his core, letting his transformation wash over him. Honestly, they were lucky that Danny wasn’t flying very quickly, because Vlad didn’t think he could’ve caught up otherwise. That was part of the reason why they always patrolled with him in his ghost form. Only today they had decided against it, worrying that Vlad’s presence would throw off the ghost scanner too much.

Vlad pushed himself up, feeling the wind tug at his hair, his cape. Before long he was catching up to Danny, and he cupped his hands around his mouth to shout the other ghost down. “Hey, wait up!”

And, surprisingly, he did. Danny glanced over his shoulder, then slowed to a halt in mid-air. His white eyebrows were creased as he frowned at Vlad. “You again. What now?”

“We just want to talk,” Vlad assured, holding his hands up appeasingly. “Me and my friends down below. You know who they are, don’t you?”

Danny’s bright green eyes narrowed. “Well, it’s not like they’ve offered their names. At all.”

They hadn’t? Vlad thought back furiously to the night before, and…

Yeah, no. Danny had introduced himself, but none of them had offered theirs in return. And Vlad couldn’t remember if they had referred to Jack and Maddie by name at all.

“Uh, oops?” he offered Danny, expression sheepish. “In our defense, we live in such a small town that we don’t meet a whole lot of strangers that we actually need to introduce ourselves to.”

Danny snorted, shaking his head a little. “And what makes you so sure that I _am_ a stranger you need to introduce yourselves to?”

“Please, Uncle Danny?” Vlad pleaded, clasping his hands together in front of his chest. “From one half-ghost to another?”

Danny’s expression stilled, and for a moment, Vlad worried that the other might just go and beat him up for spoiling his secret. But then it softened again, and he sighed.

“You shouldn’t listen in on private conversations, Vlad. That’s not only rude, but also a terrible way to use your ghost powers.”

“I know, I know.” Vlad started slowly lowering himself closer to the ground, and Danny obediently followed. “Normally I wouldn’t have, but… I just heard you and my mom being angry, snapping at each other, and I guess I just got worried that it would, y’know, escalate.”

Danny quirked an eyebrow at him, catching up so they flew side-by-side. “And you didn’t think that Elle could take care of herself?”

“Obviously she can.” Vlad rolled his eyes. “I didn’t really think. I just… acted. And then just when I went to leave I saw… Well, you must know.”

The other ghost hummed, then twisted around to smoothly land on the ground in front of Jack and Maddie. “Greetings, teenagers whose names I do not know.”

“Look, I’m sorry for spying on your private conversation, alright?” Vlad darted around Danny to meet his eyes, putting on his most earnest expression. “It was a really shitty thing to do.”

Danny shot him an unimpressed look, then shook his head once more. “Listen, Vlad. I’m not _mad_ , just… Ugh, I dunno. Annoyed? Frustrated? But not mad. I knew you were there. I could feel your ghost core appearing during the conversation, so I should’ve watched my words better. If I had, I could’ve avoided this entire situation.”

“How did you know it was me, then?” Vlad pushed, also dropping his feet back onto the ground. “Or did you just guess?”

“Well, gee, how _did_ I know?” Danny asked, dryly, letting his eyes wander from Vlad to Jack and Maddie and then back to him. “It’s not exactly rocket science, kid.”

“I told you we should’ve invested in goggles,” Jack shot at Maddie, who rolled her eyes back at him.

Vlad ignored them completely, instead turning back to Danny. “But if you knew I was there, and you _could’ve_ prevented me figuring you out, why didn’t you?”

“I…” And something about Danny’s expression just… broke. Shattered. “I guess I got too caught up in the discussion.”

“Right…” Vlad said, catching the unspoken undertone: Danny had been too upset. “Um. So what we actually wanted to talk about… You’re also half-ghost, right? So you must have way more experience with it than me, yes?”

“Yeah,” Danny agreed, slowly, drawing the word out. “About two decades of it.”

“Great!” Maddie clapped her hands together, a grin on her face. “Can you help Vlad train, then? Or at least teach us a little more about half-ghosts? We’ve been going by trial and error and it’s been…”

“Not great,” Jack finished for her, leaning around her to offer a hand to Danny. “I’m Jack, by the way. Jack Fenton.”

“Oh, right!” Maddie also stuck out her hand. “And I’m Maddie Walker.”

Danny reached out to shake both of their hands at once, his white gloves stark even against their pale skins. His expression was rather bewildered, Vlad thought. “Well, pleasure to meet you properly, I guess.”

“So will you help?” Jack asked, when Danny let them both go again. “It would be a huge help!”

“I…” Danny’s eyes slid back to Vlad, who stood up straighter as if for inspection. “I _guess_ ,” he finally conceded. “You’re family, and I know from first-hand experience how much it sucks to figure this out without guidance.”

Before Vlad could cheer, however, Danny added on, “And your mother would be incredibly upset if you get yourself killed, so.”

“He’s not going to get himself _killed_ ,” Maddie bit at Danny. “We might be teenagers, but we’re not _that_ stupid!”

Danny just turned a cocked eyebrow at her. “Yesterday he suddenly pinned me to the floor, for no reason except that he _thought_ I was up to something bad. Just that would’ve been enough to get serious retaliation from most ghosts, since you attacked first. And if you’re new to having these powers? That’s usually not a fight you can win.”

“So what _are_ we supposed to do if strong ghosts attack?” Vlad asked, puffing up his chest and trying not to feel offended. Because Danny was _right_ , damn it, but it still felt like an attack. “Just run for cover and hope the ghost doesn’t hurt anyone else?”

“ _If_ that happens, you’re supposed to call in experienced ghost hunters to come deal with it instead.” Danny rolled his eyes, crossed his arms. “But I doubt it would be a common occurrence, since there is no permanent door into the Ghost Zone around here.”

Danny stilled, then. Turned to frown at Vlad. “Speaking of which, though… How did you become half-ghost, anyway?”

Vlad thought back to the priceless ghost artifact they stole from Danielle and never recovered.

“That’s… not important?” he tried, shooting Danny a hopeful grin.

“It was a ritual we found in a book,” Maddie elaborated as Danny’s eyes started narrowing again. “It was supposed to bring a ghost into our world so we could study it.”

“We think it opened a temporary portal into the Ghost Zone and then went awry,” Jack explained. “The book was old and kinda terrible, so they might’ve noted down the ritual wrong.”

Danny heaved a deep sigh. “You three are lucky that nothing worse happened, then. Did you even have any plans on how to deal with the ghost if it had been volatile?”

“We built some containment devices, and weapons!” Maddie crossed her arms, glaring back at Danny. “We’re not _stupid_.”

“Well, maybe a little,” Vlad allowed, shrugging as Maddie’s glared moved to him. “We probably should’ve known better than to try a ritual like that first, instead of first validating the book with some less dangerous stuff.”

“Good to know at least _some_ of you have learned from the experience.” Danny shook his head, running a hand through his hair and messing the white locks up even further. “Alright, how about this. Vlad, you go and tell your mother what happened—the _complete_ story—because for some reason you haven’t told her yet.”

Vlad grimaced but nodded. That was fair; they should’ve told her before.

“And once you’ve done that we’ll arrange some sort of training,” Danny concluded. “Does that sound good to you guys?”

“Yeah,” Vlad agreed, as Maddie and Jack gave their assent as well.

“Good, good.” Danny nodded, dropping his hand to his side once more. “I gotta get going, but I’ll be around for dinner tonight. We can talk more then.”

“Wait,” Jack blurted out, holding up his hands. “We’ll tell Mrs. Masters, but you gotta tell your own friends too, alright? I just…” He paused, uncharacteristically, as if searching for words. “I’m sure they’re worried about you.”

Danny’s bright green eyes narrowed, peering at Jack. “How would you know?” he snarled, low and vicious, and Vlad immediately felt his hackles go up. “You don’t know my friends.”

Then, before any of them could stop him, or say anything, Danny pushed off. He rocketed away into the sky, his white-and-black form blurring into nothingness.

Vlad was suddenly very sure he never would’ve caught up to Danny if the man had actually been trying to keep away.

“Well, it was a good attempt,” Maddie tried, patting Jack on his shoulder.

Jack rolled his shoulder, shaking her hand off easily. “It was,” he agreed cheerily. “I’m sure it worked.”

Which Vlad highly doubted but, hey, he wasn’t about to get Jack down for no reason at all.

* * *

“So, uh, yeah. That’s basically it,” Vlad finished, trying to discretely read his mom’s expression. “Um. Surprise?”

Danielle’s eyes moved to the ceiling as she quietly muttered to herself, but then she shook her head and refocused on Vlad. “You’re—all three of you—idiots. I can’t put into words how unbelievably stupid that was. Did you three even _consider_ everything that could’ve gone wrong?”

“Well,” Jack said with a sheepish expression and a shrug of his shoulders, “We kind of thought that summoning a powerful and malevolent ghost would be the worst case, and we prepared for that. We didn’t think of…” A vague gesture. “This.”

“And that you might get hurt, or even _die_ , didn’t cross your minds at all?” Danielle clicked her tongue. “Never mind, I can tell it didn’t. Unbelievable. Is this sort of dumbassery genetic? Are all men in the family gonna be like this?”

She sounded angry, but Vlad knew his mother well enough to tell that it hid her concern, her worry.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, ducking his head lower. “It was stupid, we know.”

“Well.” She snorted, imperiously. “As long as you know.”

Then she sighed, mellowing out further. “You three are damn lucky nothing too bad happened. This… half-ghost stuff… might be weird, but it’s manageable. You’ll be fine, Vlad. But you might not have been.”

“I know,” he assured her, glancing back briefly at Jack and Maddie. After the accident they had spent a lot of time worrying about what happened. Even now that they knew that he was half-ghost, it was hard to dismiss the thoughts of how easily he could _not_ have been. “I promise, Mom, we know.”

She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly, before pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Good. I’m glad.”

When she let him go and stepped back, however, her brow was creased. “Although I _do_ wonder why you three decided to tell me now, of all times. Why not tell me sooner? Or wait longer?”

“So… It is possible that I might have listened in on your conversation with uncle Danny this morning,” Vlad admitted, grinning sheepishly. “Perhaps. Maybe.”

The disappointed look she gave him was truly without peer.

“I know, I know, it was a private conversation, I really shouldn’t have. But I heard shouting, and I got worried, and I reacted without really thinking about it.” He shrugged and tried to look apologetic.

“If it helps, Danny already chewed us out too,” Jack tagged on, and Maddie next to him nodded in agreement. “We talked to him first, to ask if he could help Vlad with training and such.”

Danielle sighed, shaking her head. “Oh, you three… And what did he say, my brother dearest?”

“That we should tell you first, and we could talk more about it during dinner.” Vlad scratched his cheek, idly. “But he _did_ promise to help, so…”

“Sorry if this isn’t our business at all, but I can’t help but wonder… What happened to Danny?” Maddie’s violet eyes moved over Vlad and Jack before settling back on Danielle. “He just seems so… so _upset_ about it all, and he apparently detests his ghost side, but I can’t imagine how he got it in the first place without caring about ghosts.”

Danielle stared her down for a long moment before sighing deeply, her shoulders sagging. “It’s… a long story. But you should know that it is possible for someone to be interested in ghosts while still detesting them, thinking them monsters.”

“You don’t have to tell us if it’s too personal,” Jack blurted out. “But it has something to do with his friends, right? With this Sam and Tucker?”

“Yeah,” she admitted, quietly. Danielle ran a hand through her hair, mussing it up and tugging on a few strands as they got caught up in the motion. “I guess I could tell you a little. It might come up if you’re gonna be working on ghost stuff together, and I don’t want you to get blindsided, just because Danny has issues talking about stuff.”

She sat down on the nearest chair, and Vlad, Maddie, and Jack followed her example by sitting down on the couch, clustered together.

“It’s important to know, for the rest of the story to make sense, that Danny, Sam, and Tucker had been close friends throughout most of their lives. Since they were kids, really, they’ve been best friends, even though their interests varied wildly and often even conflicted. In college, they decided to work on a project that combined their various skills and interests: an artificial portal into another dimension, the so-called Ghost Zone, which had not been proven to exist at the time.” She paused, then amended it with, “Or at all. It hasn’t been officially proven to exist at all.”

Danielle cleared her throat, then continued. “Between Tucker’s interest in technology, Sam’s interest in ghosts, and Danny’s interest in exploring the unknown, as well as their skills in engineering and inventing, they built a miniature ghost portal. But when it failed to activate, a fight broke out. Tucker was sure that it had failed because ghosts weren’t real, while Sam blamed Tucker’s technology. Danny, wanting nothing more than to stop his friends from fighting, decided to try and fix the portal alone.”

“And he succeeded,” Maddie gasped. “Right?”

“He did,” Danielle confirmed, her voice low and weary. “But he’d forgotten to unplug it. The device turned on while his arms were still inside it, a ghost portal forming before he could pull away. Sam and Tucker heard the commotion and managed to get him away, and the device turned off, but it was too late. Even though Danny was declared to be fine by doctors, who hadn’t found any injuries, it didn’t take long for the effects to show. Little by little, Danny developed ghost powers, and even gained the ability to turn into a ghost entirely.”

Danielle paused, running her fingers through her ponytail. “We didn’t know, back then. Jazz and I, I mean. He didn’t tell anyone. The only ones who knew were him, Sam, and Tucker. They grew even closer, somehow, trying to figure out what had happened to Danny, even with how little they knew. But there were always concerns, they were always worrying. What if Danny was slowly dying? Gradually becoming more and more ghost until no human part remained?”

“So what happened?” Vlad asked, startling himself. “If they all got closer afterwards… And it was Sam and Tucker who were fighting, before, not Danny. How did it end up like this?”

“It… Something happened. Something I’m not gonna tell you guys about because it was _personal_ , but anyway, Danny ended up lashing out in anger.” She dropped the hand she was tangling in her hair, her expression dropping along with it. “The anger didn’t last long. Almost immediately, he got worried about him falling into a ghostly rage, about it escalating and him hurting his friends. So he left, cut contact entirely.”

She laughed, humorlessly. “It took forever to get the story out of him, between me and Jazz, and… I guess he sees himself in you, Vlad. And Sam and Tucker in Maddie and Jack.”

“But clearly he no longer thinks he’s slowly turning into a ghost, or worries about the ghostly rages,” Vlad pointed out. “So why hasn’t he reunited with Sam and Tucker?”

“Who knows?” She clicked her tongue. “He cares about them, deeply, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual, but Danny doesn’t seem to think so. And once he has set his mind… He’s too stubborn for his own good, really.”

Jack hummed. “I think we might’ve caught him spying on his friends, a few nights ago, before we met him as Danny. During patrol we found him in his ghost form watching a couple.”

“A dark-skinned man, probably wearing a barrette, and a light-skinned woman with black hair?” Danielle asked, and at their nods, she made a face. “Yeah, that sounds like Sam and Tucker. I hoped he wouldn’t realize that they lived in Amity too, but this seems just his kind of shitty luck.”

Vlad thought back to the couple. He admittedly hadn’t paid too much attention to them, too occupied with watching the ghost, but still… If they were kissing, if they were together… was that the reason why Danny had gotten angry in the first place? He couldn’t help but think that, if Jack and Maddie got together while he was becoming half-ghost, he probably would’ve been pissed too.

“Anyway,” Danielle said, clapping her hands together. “None of this is your business, and I probably shouldn’t have told you guys in the first place. I’ll talk with Danny about ways to help, once he gets home, but I don’t want you trying to get involved, okay? Let me and Jazz handle it.”

“Okay.” Vlad pressed a kiss against his mom’s cheek, trying to hide how increasingly troubled he was feeling. “We’ll be in my room. Thanks, Mom, love you.”

“Love you too, honey.” She ruffled his hair before he got the chance to distance himself, and her laughter followed them all the way to Vlad’s room.

This time it was Jack who stepped into Vlad’s room last, closing the door behind them. “We should try to get those three together to talk,” he immediately declared.

“Why? Mom _just_ said to stay out of it.” _And clearly Sam and Tucker had decided to be happy together, rather than with Danny_ , Vlad thought, but did not say.

“Well, clearly nothing that _they_ have tried is working,” Jack pointed out, with a tone of voice like he was being totally reasonable. “And it was super obvious that Danny is not the only one pining, right Maddie? You saw it too?”

Maddie stood with her arms crossed, rolling her eyes. “Yes,” she admitted, finally. “Yeah, they didn’t look very happy. But for all we know there’s something else going on with them. It’s been decades. They might have moved on.”

“But it’s worth a shot, right?” Jack dragged big hopeful eyes back to Vlad. “Can’t you imagine, Vlad, if it had been us going through that? I mean, we’re not in love like those guys, but still. Losing our friendship like they lost theirs…”

But it was not the same at all. Not really.

Would it be crueler to make Danny face what he had lost, or to let him pine from a distance forever?

Vlad swallowed past the block in his throat.

“It’s worth a shot,” he agreed, quietly.

At least Danny would be able to move on, then. Just like Sam and Tucker had.

* * *

In the end, Jack and Maddie decided that there would be too much risk of people backing out if they knew what the meeting was really about, and Vlad agreed. If Danny knew _he_ certainly wouldn’t show up, and if either Sam or Tucker (or more likely, both) backed out, there wouldn’t be a point to the meeting at all. So instead they arranged it with everyone separately, somehow managing to track down Tucker and Sam when they were alone.

Danny, of course, was the easiest to meet with. As promised, he had agreed to start training Vlad, setting up a meeting for just that purpose. For Sam and Tucker, they had to get a little more creative.

Luckily Danielle had told them about their prior interests, which were gladly taken as a jumping off point. Tucker proved interested enough in the ghost hunting tech the three of them had developed, agreeing to come meet them to talk a little more about them, and to have a good look at the tech. Sam, on the other hand, was lured in with the offer to take a look at some of their rare books about ghosts.

Which brought them here. Vlad, Jack, and Maddie were there first, settling down in the grass. They had picked the meeting spot with care, a quiet corner of the park where no one ordinarily came. The large trees surrounding it should give them privacy from potential onlookers, too.

Not long after they got there, they were joined by uncle Danny. He hovered over them for a moment, then shifted back to his human form as well, his sneakers softly touching down on the grass. “Ready, Vlad?”

“Almost,” he answered, and tried not to feel too bad about what was coming. It would all be for the better. Even if things didn’t improve, likely as it seemed, then at least Danny would be able to move on.

Before he could worry too much about it, however, the bushes rustled and their last two guests appeared in the clearing as well. Sam and Tucker had apparently realized they were invited to the same place at the same time, and thus came together.

Uncle Danny stilled instantly, his eyes locked onto the forms of Sam and Tucker. They, in turn, also looked rather surprised to see him.

“Danny?” Tucker whispered, voice quiet with… shock? Surprise? Vlad didn’t know him well enough to tell.

That was enough to snap the elder half-ghost out of his frozen state. In the blink of an eye he shifted back to his ghost form, pushing off from the ground.

But he wasn’t fast enough.

In the short moment he had needed to turn ghost, Sam had crossed the distance between them. Had caught Danny’s wrist with her own hand.

And Danny… stopped. Instantly, immediately.

Tucker, not far behind Sam, caught up as well, grabbing Danny’s other wrist. And, like it was nothing, pulled him back onto the ground.

“Stay,” Sam commanded him softly, and Danny nodded meekly.

What on Earth was happening? Vlad honestly didn’t know anymore.

“We missed you,” Tucker told Danny, voice still quiet. “You won’t believe how much we’ve missed you, man.”

“But you two are—” Danny started, his vibrant green eyes wide and darting between the two people holding his wrists, like he couldn’t decide whether to pull away or to come closer.

“It’s not the same without you,” Sam interrupted, her fingers curling tighter around his wrist. “Danny, it’s not just Tucker I love. I love you too. Always have.”

“And the same goes for me,” Tucker tacked on. “It was never just the two of us, but all three. We’re not the same without you, Danny.”

Danny’s mouthed opened and shut several times, but no words came out.

Luckily, Sam took mercy on him, adding on, “We’ve been so worried about you, Danny. For two decades, we heard nothing. You never answered our messages. Avoided us completely. We only knew you were okay because Jazz and Elle would tell us if we asked.”

“Well, yeah,” Danny said, subdued, with a shrug and a meaningful look between Sam and Tucker. “I mean…”

“You thought we’d cut you out.” Tucker shook his head, his voice strained. “Danny, we tried to _tell_ you. It’s not the same without you. But you never _listened_.”

“But I’m—”

“Not a monster,” Sam snapped at him. Then, suddenly, she pulled at his wrist, dragging him closer to her.

And then they were kissing.

No, really, Vlad wasn’t sure how that happened. One moment they were talking, and then suddenly they were not.

The kiss didn’t last very long, but was promptly followed up by Tucker kissing Danny, mimicking Sam’s move to drag Danny closer.

They broke away again, Danny blinking stupidly at Sam and Tucker. Then at their hands, still around his wrists.

With a short movement, he turned his arms intangible, pulling them free. Except, instead of fleeing like Vlad was half expecting, Danny grabbed onto the hands he had just freed himself from. Wriggled his fingers between those of his… his friends? His love interests? His crushes?

Either way, Danny then promptly used the hands he held to drag both Sam and Tucker closer to him, until they were all mashed together, melting away against the sides of his long-lost friends.

“I’m sorry,” Danny murmured against Sam’s shoulder, where he had tucked his head.

“So are we,” Sam answered him, equally muffled. “We should’ve talked to you first.”

Vlad watched them for a moment longer, feeling increasingly awkward about being there. Next to him, Maddie cleared her throat, apparently just as uncomfortable as him. “We, uh. We’ll get going.”

“Sorry for being present for something so… personal,” Vlad tacked on, nodding quickly. “Uh. Congrats?”

“Congratulations!” Jack shot them a bright, cheery grin. “See, I told you, Mr. Masters!”

Somewhere in the pile, Danny groaned, his glow flickering visibly. “Now I feel old.”

“Ah, cheer up, you’re no older than us,” Tucker comforted, before twisting partly out of the pile to face Vlad, Jack, and Maddie. “And hey, don’t worry about it, kids. Without you three we never would’ve managed to pin Danny down to talk.”

“Besides,” Sam added on, turning around despite Danny still leaning his entire weight on her, diminutive as it was in his ghost form. “You were looking for training, right? Tuck and I got plenty of ghost hunting tech of our own, so we can definitely help.”

“Why do you have ghost hunting tech?” Danny asked, lifting his head slightly to squint at her. “Have you two been hunting ghosts?”

She snorted. “Well, _someone_ had to keep an eye on you. God knows you weren’t doing it yourself.”

Vlad felt a tug at his elbow, and turned out to see his friends leaving. With a nod he followed, hearing an offended squawked “Hey!” behind him.

Yeah, those three could figure the rest out on their own, he was sure.


End file.
